There's always one. Some of your families have two. But there is AT LEAST one in every damn family. Meet your play cousin Karen Cooper, a former New Yorker and former member of the Nation of Islam, turned Confederate flag wavin', southern slave owner apologist living in Richmond, Virginia. How a Black person moves to Virginia and somehow goes pro-Confederacy is beyond me.
Battle Flag - Karen Cooper from zigelko on Vimeo.
I guess she ain't listen to D'Angelo's Black Messiah.
If you ask Karen - and somebody did, because of course somebody did - slavery was a choice because like realest nigga to ever do it, Patrick Henry, said, "give me, liberty or give me death." Karen, or Ms. Cooper if you're nasty, believes that she would have just gon' out like Scarface because she wouldn't be doing that slave shit, b. Can't nobody take her pride, can't nobody hold her down. Oh no…she'd have to keep on moving. To death.
She didn't say it like that. I'm adding my own twist.
Speaking of twists, ain't it about a ho that somehow, someway, folks find the few Black Confederate Flag lovers and put them motherfuckers on video and in articles? I mean seriously. Of cousre, I'm not helping by putting a spotlight on it either, but still. Why can't Black folks who support malarkey just do so in peace. This shit has to be confusing for groups like the KKK. Folks like Karen are the kind of people you want to bring in as keynote speakers at your "southern heritage" events. Except, she's Black. Dave Chappelle was joking about Clayton Bigsby…or was he? She could probably do a workshop (do they do workshops at Klan conventions?? Real question.) or something.
Considering that Clarence Thomas JUST said that slavery didn't remove Black folks dignity - what an idiot - as part of the official Supreme Court record, and Karen feels like we pretty much just let slavery happen, this has not been a good week for Black memory in public.
Fortunately these folks do not represent the majority opinion of folks of color or of sanity. And most people with sense wouldn't let this woman cross into our homes. But if ever there was an argument that Black folks are not a monolith this is it. Not that I don't think that the government could use some scaling back on occasion but I'll be damned if I'd go so far as to join the Tea Party AND start hanging with a bunch of white folks who view the Confederate flag the way I view, say, air. I also wonder about folks who feel like the government is literally stepping on their necks at all times. I work for the feds and I don't feel that. And I'm sure the people she hangs with really enjoy her company and "perspective" but come on.
Real spit, she is LITERALLY the Black friend they can always resort to when somebody calls them racist.
"Naw, one of my best friends is Black!" And they'd pull up a picture of this woman draped in Confederate flag like James Brown in the middle of a Prince concert yelling "sexual chocolate".
Also, anybody who says shit like, "slavery was just something that happened…" yeah don't you ever in your life trust them. This woman accuses the government of being tyrannical by not allowing her to smoke whatever the fuck she CLEARLY smokes. Irony, thy name is Karen.
Point is…get your cousin.